82 (II)

Fall [I]

Adam hesitated. “I’m not convinced the Guardshead is trustworthy, Shiv. After we kill Confriga, who’s to say she won’t turn on us?”

Shiv considered that for a moment. He didn’t know Guardshead Leu that well, aside from what his Foreshadowing showed him. But he did know this: She wasn’t nearly strong enough to kill Confriga on her own, and she probably couldn’t reliably even hurt Shiv. “I don’t think she’s going to be that much of a problem for any of us, Adam. Frankly, if she’s going to betray us, she’d better have a really good plan, even with the mana core, because between your dimensional arrows, Uva’s Psychomancy, and me, well, just charging in and ripping her in half, what’s she going to do?”

The Young Lord considered that, then grunted. “Fine, we can try having her installed. That’ll take some work, though. The gate is in pretty dire condition, and the people are busy hiding.”

“We don’t need to try,” Uva said. “I simply need to find the most important people still remaining in the gate, and have them carry the message.” Her strands immediately began spreading out. “It might take some time, but it’s doable.”

“Right! Psychomancer! Fantastic! But in the meantime…” Adam regarded Confriga’s obsidian tower. And then he looked at the third gateway. His jaw clenched. “I think a series of opportunities lies open before us. The weaver breeding facility. You said that was inside this tower too, Shiv?”

“Yeah,” Shiv said. He looked up at the tower and understood what Adam was planning. “Right, we can go in and try to take care of that. Figure out what the operation is.”

“Yes, but we can also eliminate what defenders remain inside the tower. It’s very lightly defended right now. And between the three of us, we can clear it out quickly. But once we get to the upper level, I want you to reach out with your Gravitic Wrestler. And I want you to break the base of the tower connected to the plaza above.”

“Break the base,” Shiv thought. “Why?”

“Because I want to seal the third gateway temporarily, no matter what. Confriga hasn’t called in reinforcements yet, but I don’t want to risk anything. That tower, at least its head, should be able to block things. Even a Master would take some time to blast through. And we would definitely notice while they do.”

Shiv paused, and he let out an approving chuckle. “That’s a pretty good plan, Adam. I kinda like it.”

“You’re only saying that because I’m having you break things,” Adam said, deadpan. “In the meantime, I briefly looked through the tower. There seem to be several rooms of interest and some critical personnel we should still eliminate. But aside from the breeding facility, there are also the slaves and… what seems to be a vault.”

“A vault?” Shiv asked.

“Yes. Confriga has another hidden room near the middle of the tower. I think it is a personal treasure vault of some kind.”

“Treasury,” Shiv said, sounding excited. “Well, I do think that we deserve a bit of an extra reward for all the work we’ve been putting in here.”

Uva let out a slight huff. “The Arachnae Order thinks very lowly of robbers and scoundrels.” She paused. “Thankfully, the Arachnae Order is nowhere near here, and we’re robbing Compact. So. That makes this a repossession operation. I think I’m looking forward to this.”

By this point, practically all three of them were grinning.

“And then there’s the matter of the slaves,” Adam said, a slight growl entering his voice.

“Shiv,” Can Hu interjected. “I have freed the automata slaves. They are beginning the uprising. I’ve transmitted my messages to them. They understand what is about to happen and what is at stake. Adam. Eliminate the most essential and dangerous slaver overseers, and the uprising should be able to handle itself. I will see to it through my drones in the meantime.”

Shiv conveyed the information to Adam, and the Young Lord let out a breath. “Ah, Can Hu, I didn’t realize how busy you were.”

“I will take that as a compliment,” Can Hu replied. “The local slavers didn’t notice either.”

“And when all that’s done…” Shiv said. He stared at his own skull-helmed reflection in his stellarite kukri and found a surge of excitement rushing through him. “I think we’re going to pay Confriga a collective visit.”

“Yes, but all of us, at once. And when he’s weakened,” Uva stressed. “Something is wrong with his sword. Deeply wrong. He summoned the Shoggoth using it, and I think that’s only the tip of its capabilities. If I had to guess, it must have a Heroic-Tier Enchantment. At the very minimum.”

“At minimum,” Shiv muttered. He’d fought Master-Tier adversaries with Master-Tier weapons. But a piece of Heroic-Tier equipment… His Mask of False Paths was one such thing. But while it would have been a miracle item in the hands of a proper spy, it was not meant for war. He wondered just what Absence could do.

“Fine, then,” Shiv said. “We’ll all have a piece of him together. And remember, we promised to bring Valor along. We gotta save something for the old man.”

Adam stared at Shiv. “I’m going to tell him you called him that.”

“And tell him whatever you want. He still likes me more than you.”

Adam sneered. “Oh, that might change sometime.”

“Sure it will, Young Lord.”

“That might change,” Adam repeated, narrowing his eyes. They both snorted at each other. And then the moment of levity broke, and all three assumed a mental state of battle readiness.

“Alright,” Adam said. “I’m going airborne, as far and high up as I can go while staying in range of Uva’s strands.”

“For your arrows?” Shiv asked.

“Yes,” Adam said. “Distance is damage, and I’ve had enough of this close-quarters bullshit for a day.”

Shiv nodded. “I’m gonna go inside and, I think, rip some stuff up. I’ll move through the tower as fast as I can.”

“I’ll step through my rift and assist you if necessary,” Adam said. “Well, maybe.” He flashed his saber, and his clones began to appear. “Maybe I’ll just send one of my peons.” The other Adams looked at the original, annoyed.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Yeah, he makes me feel that way sometimes too,” Shiv said.

The bulk of Uva’s mind drifted away from them. “I will plant thoughts marking Guardshead Leu as the new Gate Lord. I will try to work fast, and I will assist you all in the meantime. I will also keep an eye on the situation at the gateway. Be prepared to respond summarily. We cannot let Confriga emerge unscathed, and we cannot let the First Blood overrun this place and slay him.”

And then she paused. “Ah, another thing. I will try to hunt down the remaining Aviary and First Blood assets within the gate. There are some still lurking about. I’m pretty sure I quelled a lesser vampire outbreak a district away.”

And with their new tasks assigned, the group went forth, each of them focusing on another section while staying connected to each other through Uva’s mind.

With Confriga distracted and his army in shambles, Shiv moved with the subtlety of a wrecking ball. He blasted against the underside of the obsidian tower and carved his way through. This time, he didn’t bother plugging the gap behind him. He simply left it open. He didn’t intend for the obsidian tower to remain standing by the end of this anyway.

Once inside, he began smashing his way from the bottom up. He still kept his Silhouette active, just to make himself hard to track. Walls, floors, and rooms were left in ruins as he passed through. The guards of the obsidian tower were slaughtered with prejudice. And ease. Confriga had only left a skeleton crew behind, taking the rest of his elites out into battle.

The main enemies he had faced now were usually just elemental dimensionals. And they rarely lasted that long.

As he climbed the tower, however, he began seeing Adam’s handiwork as well. He would get to a new floor and find most of the enemies there already dead. The weaker ones were little more than a smear of blood against the ground. The stronger ones had holes through their body. Holes the size of a Veilpiercer.

“Adam, are you killing my victims?” Shiv sent.

“They’re not yours if I’m killing them first, are they?” Adam shot back tauntingly.

“Oh, so it’s like that now,” Shiv replied.

“Has it ever been another way?” Adam asked.

The Deathless gritted his teeth. The asshole needed a lesson. “Fine then, let’s make it a competition.”

“Ha! Let’s not, I already shot everyone worth shooting in the building.”

Shiv paused. “What do you mean you shot everyone else in the building?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like,” Adam said nonchalantly. “As it turns out, when you have a great many clones, and they can all use Veilpiercers, clearing buildings becomes extraordinarily easy. You should try it sometime. If you ever develop those skills.”

Shiv’s mind went blank for a while. “I… I was…”

“You were kind of looking forward to ripping through people and smashing your way up through every floor?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Aww, but you can still smash the building, Shiv!”

“But no people to kill means it doesn’t feel completely right.”

“You’ll just have to be faster next time. Or maybe, I don’t know, develop a skill with more precision and finesse.”

And for the first time in a while, Adam was truly managing to annoy Shiv. The Deathless would be impressed if he weren’t so, well, annoyed.

“Well, come on, Shiv, get a move on,” Adam said. The moment of back and forth between them was over. “We have objectives to secure and a Quest to finish. Stay on target, monster.”

“Alright, Archer, let’s get this thing done.” He shot straight up through every floor, keeping his eyes open. But true to Adam’s words, everyone worth killing was already dead. Shiv’s annoyance turned into envy and slight admiration. Adam wasn’t wrong about the precision and focus comment. A skill like that could help Shiv go a long way.

Frankly, if Shiv had been in Adam’s situation, he would have needed to rush every single building at once, unless he kept the rapier. But frankly, the rapier was better with Adam anyway. All the clones were susceptible to damage and shared all the damage at that, and they didn’t last very long either. Someone had to keep triggering them.

The rapier was good for an archer, good for someone who could move and use spatial magic. With the rapier, Adam became practically a minor artillery corps unto himself. Maybe not so minor anymore, now that he had the Veilpiercer Skill, the vambrace, and Spellstring.

And then Shiv considered how he might have handled Uva’s situation. Not particularly well, actually. What she managed to do to both armies was far beyond Shiv’s capabilities. He probably could have torn through a good number of them. Maybe even smashed through Confriga’s vanguard. But he was, at his core, a brutal instrument.

And there were a good number of brutal instruments within Confriga’s armies, along with the former Gate Lord himself. Shiv could have forced a fight and butchered a good portion of Confriga’s army, but never engineered a collapse like Uva did.

Then again, considering how the other two would have operated within the confines of the teleportation anchor… Yeah, not very good, Shiv surmised.

Uva might do better than Adam if she kept jumping between bodies. But that was just the thing, she needed enemies with low or nonexistent Magical Resistance to perform to her fullest capabilities.

I just need to be there and keep going. And it was then that he appreciated being a part of a team again. For a while, he thought he could have done everything himself if he got strong enough. But it was as Valor had told him once, you needed to devote time, focus, and effort to every skill. And even if he had 10 Master-Tier Skills, he suspected there would still be numerous areas he needed to rely on Adam and Uva.

None of them could have brought this gate down alone. And that filled Shiv with a feeling of true camaraderie. A feeling the other two had as well.

As Shiv exploded out through the ground of the breeding facility, he found the conveyor belts unmoving, but there were hundreds of people still suspended along the entire belt until they passed through a gap into an adjacent room.

As Shiv called out to them, a few moaned. A great many were unresponsive, but a couple looked down. “I’m going to try to get you guys out and fix you up, all right?” Shiv called out.

“Please,” an older man said. “Help us, help us…”

Just then, a thought came through from Adam. “Shiv, follow the conveyor belts. There are several people in the next room. They’re hostiles.”

“You didn’t shoot them?” Shiv asked.

“No, they’re not actually combatants, and more importantly… You’d best see for yourself. I think they have important information they can offer us. Uva. We will need you.”

“Give me one second,” Uva said, sounding slightly strained. “I will need some time to finish what I can, then I will devote another portion of my mind to this.”

“Another portion of, oh yeah, that’s right, Parallel Thinking.” Adam reacted with naked envy. “I wish I had Parallel Thinking.”

“Try doing multiple things at once very well,” Uva replied absentmindedly.

Shiv did as he was asked. And though the Young Lord hadn’t shot the people in the next room, he did put a few holes in the ground around them, leaving them huddled in the corner, boxed in. Shiv did a double-take as he entered the room.

It wasn’t nearly as large a space as the room with the conveyor belts, but it had plenty of what looked like industrial-level equipment. And more importantly, there were open slots on the walls and even more slots running all the way up to the ceiling and across the walls. These slots were each filled with a person sealed in some kind of magical stasis pod. They all had eggs inside them too, and he sensed a little over a thousand people packed deep into the walls…

“What the hells,” Shiv muttered.

A young woman whimpered beside him, hanging from the end of a conveyor belt. A line of other people pressed against her, all of them miserable, all of them clearly suspended there for a while. He could feel the eggs inside of them, writhing and twitching. And beneath the woman were those containers, the containers that held the other people currently slotted into the wall. There was no magic active yet, but the egg-bearers were clearly meant to be loaded into these things.

And then he finally noticed them, the uniformed people operating this room. Shiv did another take. They weren’t Vultegs, or humans, or even Umbrals. They were Weaveresses.

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